What is your purpose?

Let me ask you a question. Why do you exist? What is your purpose in this life?
To a lot of people, this question is unanswerable - a mystery that can never be solved with certainty. After all, who can really know the meaning of life? Why waste time asking such a perplexing question when children need to eat, the house needs to be painted, and there are more pressing things to think about?

But this line of thinking is unfortunate. After all, those who do not know why they exist, walk through life unsure of their ultimate purpose. This is a tragedy because it is impossible to evaluate your life until you know why you were created in the first place! Am I failing in life? Am I succeeding in life? These are questions that you cannot answer accurately until you know the reason for why you exist.

You Exist to Bring God Glory

The good news is that there is an answer! The answer is not difficult to find (though it is difficult to accept). The Bible clearly explains that our purpose in life is to bring glory to God. That is to say, you and I exist to display how great God is. God created us so that the agenda behind everything we do is to point people to the goodness, and power, and grace, and love of God. This is why we exist. Let me prove it to you.

When we ask the question “what is my purpose?” we are actually asking a different question: “why did God create humans?” Let me put it this way. The WAY that God made humans, reveals WHY God made humans. In other words, the fact that God created humans in His own image reveals what God’s goal in creating humans was! Listen, when you look at an entire planet that is filled with beings who are made in God’s image – what’s the result? The result is that God’s image and therefore God’s greatness - is on display. And God is glorified when his greatness is on display! Do you see that God’s purpose in creating humans, was to display his greatness on every corner of the earth!

God himself said as much as he spoke of the nation of Israel. Listen to Isaiah 43:7 where God (in referring to Israel) speaks of “Everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for My glory…”

God just comes out and says it. He created Israel so that He would gain glory, so that His greatness would be publicly displayed for all to see. As John Piper puts it, God created us for His glory. The Bible is crystal clear. The reason you exist, your purpose in life, is to bring God glory.

A Misstep

Now listen, it is possible to find purpose outside of Christ. You can live for A purpose. 
You can also try to shovel away 12 inches of snow with a kitchen spoon! It is possible to use a spoon that way, but that is not what the spoon was created for! In a similar sense, just because you find a purpose in life, does not mean that you are fulfilling the task which you were created to do. You can find a sense of purpose in working a job, raising kids, and feeding the poor, but you were not ultimately created to do those things. Your fundamental purpose in life is to do those kinds of things in order to bring glory to God. So, until your purpose in life is to display God’s greatness for all to see, you will miss the purpose for living. Augustine said it so well “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”

The Good news

Here’s the good news. Jesus came to make you rich. One of the riches that Jesus blesses us with is the gift of purpose. Here’s what amazes me about this gift of purpose. No matter how high you ascend on the ladder of success, and no matter how low you fall on the social totem pole, your life has meaning and purpose! Whether you are on wall street or laying in a hospital bed, your life has purpose because you can point others to God’s greatness no matter your lot in life. Do you see how valuable this gift of purpose is? My friend, it is good to be a christian, because  only those who do what they were created to do fulfill their purpose in life.